241040 Demonstration of the PARTNER Tool

Saturday, October 29, 2011: 2:30 PM

Danielle Varda, PhD , Assistant Professor, School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO
Participants will be introduced to simple data gathering and evaluation techniques using the PARTNER (Program to Analyze, Record, and Track Networks to Enhance Relationships - www.partnertool.net) tool.

PARTNER is a tool (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) that uses the principles of SNA to measure the amount and quality of collaboration, particularly the social infrastructure of interactions between involved members of public health collaboratives, by measuring connectivity. While partnering with others has become an accepted indicator of effectiveness in public health, there are few ways to measure and implement it. PARTNER provides a novel methodology, and network visualization capability, for measuring such effectiveness by assessing network characteristics such as the strength and quality of connections among partners, the types of resources exchanged, levels of trust, indicators of the value of each partner to the collaborative, and the perceived success and outcomes of collaboration. By using the tool, collaboratives can demonstrate to stakeholders, community members, and funders how their collaborative activity has changed or improved over time, including how community organizations participate. The results from the analysis of PARTNER help collaboratives strategically plan ways to work together in order to address health issues facing their community, specifically to implement performance improvement and action planning. Additionally, PARTNER provides an innovative way for public health collaboratives to evaluate their efforts, share these results with others, and document results for both internal and external (e.g. accreditation evaluation) review. Following a rigorous process of development and pilot testing, PARTNER was “launched” in Spring 2008. Please see www.partnertool.net to get more information on PARTNER, access to resources, testimonials, and other information about PARNTER.

A demonstration of PARTNER (Program to Analyze, Record, and Track Networks to Enhance Relationships) will be provided, along with instructions for use by participants. Several exercises will be used to build participant skills regarding what social network data is and how it can be analyzed in a public health setting using this tool

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Identify resources and tools for implementing the quality improvement techniques of Strategic Collaborative Management (SCM).

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the creator of PARTNER and have presented a demo of the PARTNER tool over 30 times.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Applying Social Network Analysis to Quality Improvement in Public Health Collaboratives: Introduction to Methods and Tools
See more of: APHA-Learning Institute (APHA-LI)